Low hands in poker can often be confusing for newcomers to the game. Indeed, even experienced players make mistakes reading the low board from time to time. The two key things to remember are:

• 1. Your lowest five cards count, but these cards must all be different ranks. (Paired cards only qualify as one low card, not two!)
• 2. The first card to consider is the highest card of your five, then the next highest card and so on.

• Against a hand of KJ87643, the ace-high hand would be the winning hand. If the king-high hand were up against KQT8542, the queen in this hand being the highest next card would beat the KJ87643. The winning hand would be read as; king high, high kicker.
• Poker Hands – Ranking. Every poker player knows that the Royal Flush is the strongest poker hand, but where do all of the other poker winning hands rank? Here is a comprehensive list of poker hands in order from highest to lowest ranking.

High Card is the worst possible hand on the poker hand rankings list. It consists of no pair or any other hand type – just a high card. The words “High Card” should have you thinking straight away about a hand with the highest card. However, this is the lowest possible hand in Texas Hold’em. An ace may also be used as the lowest ranking card in a 5-high straight (5-4-3-2-A), which is also called a wheel or bicycle. Although Stud and Hold’em are played with seven cards, the best hand refers to the best five-card hand. Hand rankings are a function of probability. The rarer the hand, the more valuable it is.

What Is The Lowest Possible Hand In Poker

In Hi/Lo poker an Ace counts as a low card when you are calculating the low part of the board. In fact, the Ace is the best possible low card, then the Deuce, then the Trey. Thus the Ace is doubly important in Hi/Lo games – it is the best card for the low side of the pot as well as for the high end.

What Is The Lowest Hand In Poker

Flushes and straights are completely ignored for the purposes of the low pot. The best possible low hand on Omaha Hi/Lo (and Stud Hi/Lo) is 5-4-3-2-A, which is often known as the wheel (or bicycle). You will notice that the 'wheel' is also a Five-high straight on the high end of the board, which makes it a very powerful holding in Hi/Lo games.

What Is The Highest Winning Hand In Poker

In Hi/Lo games, there is always an Eight qualifier for the low. In other words, to qualify as a low hand, you must have five different cards ranked Eight or below. Thus 8-7-6-5-4 qualifies as a low hand in Hi/Lo games, whereas 9-4-3-2-A and 4-3-3-2-A do not. The 9-4-3-2-A hand contains only four qualifying low cards (the Nine is disqualified), and the 4-3-3-2-A hand only has four cards of different ranks (pairs are also not permitted).